married couples who get divorced in

Colorado are working under the uniform

dissolution of marriage Act which is a

comprehensive statutory scheme for

dividing property dealing with parenting

rights and uh it’s it’s very

straightforward people who are unmarried

have a couple of complications in

Colorado first of all Colorado is one of

the few states that still recognizes

common law marriage and it’s very facts

based in Colorado so that is the court

can look at a number of factors to

determine whether or not parties are in

fact married even though they’ve never

had a formal solemnization of their

marriage people who hold themselves out

as being married people who have joint

bank accounts people who have sent

Christmas cards saying you know Merry

Christmas from the Millers they can find

themselves in a circumstance where

they’re married and their divorce will

be handled under the uniform dissolution

of marriage act even if they never

intended a marriage to exist on the

other hand you have unmarried Partners

who never want to get married never did

get married married bought a house

together and suddenly they are splitting

up and they don’t have the protections

of the uniform dissolution of marriage

act instead they’re under a series of

common law

theories and philosophies that will

govern the division of their estate they

may have to proceed with a partition

action in order to divide their real

property they may have to prove out

their contributions for other property

oftentimes there might be property

that’s titled in one party’s name that

both have contributed to or one party

might have debt on a property and the

other party has a claim on title if

there’s jointly titled real property it

definitely has to go to a partition

action sometimes claims such as unjust

enrichment that is I contributed to this

property that is in your separate name

and I would like to receive those monies

back can be very helpful in dividing

that property but basically we are

seeing less and less unmarried partner

litigation since the change in law in

Colorado allowing same-sex Partners to

get married but we still do have some

people who they’re not willing to commit

to a lifetime of marriage but they are

willing to commit to a 30-year mortgage

and for those people I strongly

recommend that they sign a cohabitation

agreement that will sort out all those

issues in advance so they won’t have to

proceed with common law arguments